It will be at the south end of the Literary Walk in Central Park
(around 66th Street or so, just east of Sheep's Meadow -- the area looks
sort of like this
in late October) promptly at 6:30PM on Saturday, May 10, 2003. It will
be a free event.

(Please do not confuse this reading with the
one announced earlier in the week. That reading will take place on
May 10, 2011 -- at the same time and place as the one next week, assuming
times and places still exist in 2011.)

Q: Is this some sort of protest against something? A rally
in
favor of something?

Q: May I wear a feather boa?

Q: I'm not really a writer, can I really read at it?!?

Q: Won't I look silly, sitting around for an hour reading
with
a bunch of people, especially in the primaveral air of early evening?

A: The answer to all these questions is "YES!" . . . Think of
a cross between an old-fashioned passive-resistance sit-in and an hour-long
session at the library . . . Many times you've sat at readings for an hour
as others have read, but never have you ever sat reading as EVERYONE
ELSE read too. Think about it. This is democracy at work! Or maybe
it's more of a communist thing. Anyway, it'll be totally egalitarian and
(hopefully) totally silent. Readers will sit and read with everyone else,
and they will all do this silently: thus, a "silent reading." (You may
move your lips as long as you do not make a sound. If what you're reading
moves you to laugh or cry, you will be permitted to do so -- you get the
point, you aren't dumb, it won't be all that strict, only polite shushings
and/or lashings with elasticky branches will be meted out, ever so generously,
to all offenders . . .)

Maybe we'll do this once a month until it gets too cold? If we do it
more than once, maybe we'll change the location each time? By 2011, it'll
be like that Critical Mass thing, but a little geekier and without any
calories burned while riding bikes. But imagine everyone reading with everyone
else for an hour in the middle of the streets: the rush of cities (cities!
next we take Atlanta, then we take Berlin) stalled by millions sitting
Native American-style, blocking traffic, silently reading things worth
reading. It will be beautiful. It will be public
introversion come to life. And it all starts May 10, 2003! And it will
be documented! And you'll be there wearing a smile and a cheap feather
boa! And when it's over, everyone will frolic in the Park! Or screw
all that outdoors stuff and go get a drink somewhere dark and dank . .
.